Minnesota Twins 2016 Draft Retrospective: Plenty of Big-League Talent

Including the guys that are gone, was an unbelievable draft.  

Caleb Hamilton was also in the mix. 

Whether the Twins should have protected the two that got away needs more info. Who were the players kept that took the spots they would have gotten? What were the teams needs at the time? Then you always have to wonder if the player got some instruction that helped that the Twins would not of given them.

3 hours ago, roger said:

Including the guys that are gone, was an unbelievable draft.  

Is it?

The Ryan regime had a string of much worse drafts for several years prior, so it is much better in comparison.  But so far it seems decent with the potential to be pretty good.  As these things go, even 7 years is usually not enough time to judge a draft, give it another 2 or 3 years and we should actually have a decent idea.

So far the two highest WAR producers are Wells and Baddoo, but I don't think either were mistakes that they were left unprotected, especially considering the injuries that meant neither had played competitively for almost 2 years when each was selected.

Baddoo is looking like a rookie fluke at this point.  I think he can get back to being an average-ish hitter with average-ish defense in a corner outfield spot.  But that is more of a 4th outfielder role on a good team.

Similarly with Wells, I think he is a solid back of the rotation starter or maybe a solid middle reliever, but I'm not buying his early success this season.  He's an extreme flyball pitcher who doesn't strike out that many.  It's a recipe for giving up tons of homers, which he's done.  The early ERA this year isn't backed by his peripherals.  A back of the rotation guy out of the 15th round is still a good developmental outcome by the Twins/Orioles, but again, not a huge building block either.

As for the guys that are still with the Twins org, I give the new regime a lot of credit for turning Jax into a good late innings reliever.  It's a pretty good outcome for a 3rd round pick.  I think Balazovic still has a good shot at being a good reliever as well, so that would also be a pretty good outcome.

Kirilloff and Miranda still have the potential to make or break the draft.  I still have faith in Kirilloff becoming a really good major league hitter, but it's still up in the air.

On Miranda, I'm worried that we're seeing the return of the pre-2021 version.  He's making plenty of contact but just so much weak contact.  I don't know what happened to all the hard contact from the last two years, but I hope it comes back because he's not going to keep his bat in the lineup with his defense.

If one of those two goes on to have a couple of borderline All-star level seasons, then I don't think it's hard to call it a pretty successful draft.  If both do, then I might even say great draft.  Right now it still feels too early.

2 hours ago, Ricky Vaughn said:

Whether the Twins should have protected the two that got away needs more info. Who were the players kept that took the spots they would have gotten? What were the teams needs at the time? Then you always have to wonder if the player got some instruction that helped that the Twins would not of given them.

At the time, Baddoo had missed most of 2019 after TJ, and then I'm not sure what kind of instruction he got in 2020 covid year.  I don't think he was in St. Paul but maybe got some extended spring training.  His last level was high-A.

Wells had missed all of 2019 with TJ, and then pitched only in St. Paul in 2020.  His last level was AA and he was 26 when the Orioles took him in the draft.

I don't think we even need to know who else was protected to know that neither seemed like a must protect prior to the rule-5 draft.  It was an entirely retrospective argument, and the decision doesn't even look that bad now that we have a couple years of major league track record for Wells and Baddoo.

Some guys that were protected that year IIRC: Kirilloff, Rooker, Celestino, Balazovic

I recall a lot of people on this board being fans of Tyler Wells a few years ago, and weren't happy when the Twins left him unprotected.  And indeed, that was a bigger loss, I think, than Baddoo. Speaking of whom, there is a rather funny/painful video of Baddoo being caught stealing in yesterday's Tiger's game. Ouch!

One helluva draft! Has the chance to be one of the best 

Seems a flaw the Twins have is drafting injury prone players 

On 5/9/2023 at 5:35 AM, Doctor Wu said:

I recall a lot of people on this board being fans of Tyler Wells a few years ago, and weren't happy when the Twins left him unprotected.  And indeed, that was a bigger loss, I think, than Baddoo. Speaking of whom, there is a rather funny/painful video of Baddoo being caught stealing in yesterday's Tiger's game. Ouch!

Tyler Wells was in AA and looked about ready for an opportunity at the time of his injury.  He was forgotten by many on this site I think he was viewed as a back of the rotation starter with a chance to be a number 3 starter.  I think he would have benefited from the Twins push on added velocity as he throws 94.  We had many prospects back then and he was easily lost in the numbers.  Losing Badoo was a big surprise no one saw coming.  He was the type of player you leave unprotected.  I think Detroit was so bad and had no farm system that they figured they could protect him for the season on their bench and stash him in the minors the following season.